


The Human's Music

by atlas_white



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: 80s Music, Combat, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Suspense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-10
Updated: 2014-06-10
Packaged: 2018-02-04 04:45:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1765945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atlas_white/pseuds/atlas_white
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tracks and Raoul are stuck in traffic one rainy evening when Decepticons suddenly attack in a crowded section of New York City, with Tracks the only Autobot in the immediate area. But Raoul isn't going to let him take this on alone, and this battle could cost them both everything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Human's Music

 

_Tracks & Raoul - The Human's Music_

 

 

The city was shrouded in a rainy haze the night it happened. The colorful city lights and billboards reflected on the asphalt, all wet and shiny and riddled with puddles. The rain slowed the traffic, which had already been very congested, and drummed on Tracks's roof in a way that Raoul thought sounded pretty nice between the beats of _Raspberry Beret_.

 

Tracks didn't find it to be nearly so appealing. All he could think about was the streaks it was going to leave on his paint and his windshield. Stuck in traffic like this, he couldn't even take off or transform. At least he could complain about Raoul's choice in music.

 

"Raoul, honestly, do you _have_ to listen to that... that _music_?" Tracks asked, his voice seemingly disembodied inside the cab. He stressed the word "music" like it was something totally unsuited to his audio receptors.

 

Raoul just laughed. "Lighten up, man! What better way to spend a traffic jam than hangin' out, listening to Prince?"

 

Tracks huffed. "Well I'm glad you're enjoying yourself, because if it weren't for you, I'd be warm and _dry_ back at base, _and_ I wouldn't _have_ to listen to _Prince_."

 

Raoul leaned forward and patted the dashboard affectionately, but he couldn't hide the satisfied grin on his face-- even if he'd actually bothered to try. They both knew Tracks wouldn't have put up with it for anyone but him.

 

"Tell ya what," Raoul said. "How's about I give you a nice buff an' wax later to make up for it?"

 

"That sounds wonderful." Tracks answered. "I'm overdue for it, you know."

 

Raoul chuckled. "Just one condition." He paused for effect, and heard the vents _huff_ in a way that only an irritated sentient car's vents could. "You gotta quit complaining. Relax! Kick back and enjoy the little things!"

 

The traffic moved just a little; Tracks rolled forward with it, but then had to stop again. He could see the rain reflecting his headlights.

 

"Frankly, the _little things_ are what's bothering me." The Autobot huffed. "This driving _rain_ , in particular. And the traffic. And your music."

 

Since they really weren't going anywhere anytime soon, Raoul unfastened his safety belt and turned in his seat, leaning across it with his legs in the passenger seat, feet just over the edge. Tracks would _not_ let him put his boots on the seats. Even with Raoul, there were a few certain limits-- and Tracks was rather strict about them.

 

"I told you _not_ to complain." He chided. "Unless you wanna wax _yourself_?"

 

"And maybe _you'd_ like to _walk_ home, since you so enjoy the rain." Tracks retorted.

 

"Now you're just being unfair." Raoul said, and reached over to turn the music up.

 

Tracks sighed, and pulled forward again. This time, the traffic made it nearly two meters. He was sure it was a record distance for the evening.

 

"Hey Tracks. Y'know what some guys do when they're stuck in traffic?" Raoul offered after a minute, rubbing the shift suggestively with his palm. "It's a good night for it."

 

"Why Raoul! Here? Now?" The smile could be heard in Tracks's coy tone. "Well, I suppose it would take my mind off of the 'little things'."

 

Raoul started to pull himself out of his lounging position, tugging at his jacket. He opened his mouth to say something, but he thought he heard Tracks speaking over the music, and then he saw something through the windshield that made his blood run cold.

 

And then there was a terrific explosion.

 

It all happened so quickly, it was like a scene from a nightmare. Everything blurred together. Raoul was thrown right out his seat, hard enough to wind him. He barely heard Tracks shouting.

 

" _Get into one of the buildings and stay put!_ "

 

He wasn't sure when he left the protective warmth of Tracks's cab-- when the Corvette had transformed, of course, but _how quickly_ it had happened-- but all the same Raoul was suddenly on the street, watching the Autobot maneuver as quickly as he could around the cars in his bot mode. People could say whatever they wanted about Tracks, but man, he was a true _Autobot_.

 

As for Raoul-- he was never very good at taking instructions. He gathered his strength and ran as hard as he could down the sidewalk, heart pounding in his chest. Panic was already rushing through the passengers of all the other cars, and the situation was only going to get uglier from there. Whether he liked it or not, Tracks would need his help until back-up arrived.

 

The smoke from the explosion cleared quickly under the driving rain, giving Raoul a clear view of the massive creature towering over it all at the end of the street, its dark body reflecting the colorful lights all around it. The behemoth turned to look at Tracks, red visor burning in the rain.

 

Of course it had to be a Decepticon, right? No, of course it had to be _Soundwave_ , master of sabotage, and disposing of anything that stood in the way of Megatron. Master of his own menagerie of portable assassins.

 

"Ravage, eject." The inhuman voice droned from high above Raoul, and he could barely hear it above the chaos. But he saw the black shape fly out of Soundwave's chest, landing with a heavy thud on some unlucky guy's car, crushing it on impact.

 

Ravage didn't waste a movement, springing fluidly from that car to the next, and then another after that, bounding toward Tracks.

 

The Autobot raised his gun threateningly at the Decepticon, but he couldn't take the chance that he might hit fleeing humans or a building. Raoul knew it, and more importantly, _Ravage_ knew it.

 

Ravage landed on yet another car, the occupants thankfully already out and running with the panicked crowd. His launchers clicked into place, and all at once, he fired first one missile, then the other. Tracks barely managed to avoid the first when the second nailed him in the chest with terrible force.

 

"Buzzsaw, Ravage, Rumble, Frenzy, eject." Soundwave's voice droned again, and four more shapes flew out into the darkness.

 

Buzzsaw joined Ravage in the attack on Tracks, while Rumble and Frenzy flew off elsewhere to tend to whatever it was they were here for. It was impossible to tell from here what they were doing, and Raoul's mind couldn't wrap around it in all the confusion.

 

All he knew was that Tracks was in trouble, and that the panicked masses were keeping him from making it to him _or_ to Soundwave.

 

He was being shoved painfully from all angles, jostled by the men and women stampeding like cattle from the danger. He felt a tightness in his throat. He couldn't see what was happening anymore, but he knew Tracks must be having the same problem. It was time for another strategy, or they were both screwed.

 

Raoul forced his way over to the front of a taxi by the sidewalk and quickly pulled himself up onto the hood. Taking up Ravage's strategy, he jumped up onto the roof of the car, got a running start, and leapt over the heads of the crowd to the next car over. He nearly lost his footing in the downpour, but caught his balance with the practiced ease of being a breakdancer. No big deal; he _had_ this.

 

Tracks caught Ravage as he leapt at him, having no more missiles. Lazerbeak fired on him, but he hurled the jaguar cassette at the assassin, catching him in the air and sending both of them crashing into a building. Belatedly, the Autobot hoped no serious damage had been caused.

 

Buzzsaw took the opportunity to attack Tracks from behind, searing into his shoulder joint with his diamond-sharp beak. Tracks shrieked in pain and tried to attack the bird, but he was quick to fly out of the way and attack his front. The Autobot swiped at him again, and the Decepticon again flew easily out of the way.

 

Tracks lost his balance in the struggle, as the bird got bolder and attacked his legs, and had no choice but to move forward or risk falling into a building or worse, into the crowd below. He stretched his aching leg out, and found a place to put his foot next to the cars and partly on the sidewalk. He was deeply relieved when the terrified humans scattered to let him put it down.

 

Raoul leapt to another roof, passing Tracks, getting closer to Soundwave. Distantly, it started to occur to him that the crowd should have been able to evacuate already.

 

Tracks stepped forward again, getting away from the traffic at last to the cleared square that Soundwave stood in, looming over Autobot and human alike.

 

Buzzsaw made to attack again, but at last, Tracks was able to hit him with his black light gun, blinding him. He swatted the cassette aside and turned the gun on Soundwave.

 

He didn't even make a move before Soundwave shot him.

 

Tracks dropped his gun and staggered back, leaned against a building for support. Raoul couldn't tell how bad it really was, to a Transformer, but it sure looked bad to him. The wound was dark and right on top of the missile hit from before. Brilliant blue sparks flew from the overlap, blindingly bright in the mist; his armor had been pierced.

 

Gaining momentum as he leapt from roof to roof, Raoul crossed the last few cars to the square. He tried to remember a time when he would've been afraid, back when he hadn't met or even _heard_ of the Autobots. Yeah, there was some distant time when he would've freaked out just like anybody, with giant space robots fighting all around him like in some fantastic movie. But he could barely recall it. Now he knew, just as much as the Autobots; this wasn't a movie, this was real life. And he was living it.

 

He jumped onto the hood of a totalled sedan and finally down onto the ground. He took a deep breath, cupped his hands by his mouth, and _shouted_.

 

" _Ay! Soundwave!_ " He called. " _Down here, ya overgrown toaster!_ "

 

With an eerie hiss of hydraulics, Soundwave turned to look at him. In the next instant, he brought his massive foot down-- Raoul barely scrambled out of the way in time to avoid being squashed. The asphalt where he'd been standing was cracked and dented by the force. There was a _crater_ left behind.

 

"Oh, you don't _like_ that, do ya?" Raoul shouted. He didn't really have a plan. He just needed to get this guy away from Tracks. "Come _on_! Come on and _squish me_!"

 

Soundwave took a step back, and looked to Tracks again. This really wasn't going to work for long if he didn't do something to make himself worth the Decepticon's attention.

 

Raoul ran toward Tracks, who shifted against the wall and spotted the human coming towards him.

 

"Raoul, _no_! What are you _doing_?" Tracks cried, horrified.

 

"I know what you're up to, Soundwave!" Raoul shouted. "You think you got a good thing goin' here, don't you? Got everybody runnin' like rats? Well, you didn't count on _me!_ "

 

Soundwave looked down at him, faceless and unimpressed by the display of bravado. Finally, he spoke again, voice just as eerie and disembodied as before. "Buzzsaw: exterminate human insect."

 

Buzzsaw shot suddenly from the dark sky like a shadowy comet, set on his grim goal. Raoul didn't have a second to think about it, dropping to the ground to avoid the attack. The assassin shot past overhead and back up into the sky, only the afterglow of his crimson optics visible in the murk. Apparently, he hadn't stayed blinded for long.

 

Raoul picked himself up uneasily and ran for the only weapon he had available: Tracks's black-light gun, still lying on the ground. He tried to lift the weapon but found it too large and heavy, and he knew with rising terror that Buzzsaw was already circling back for another go.

 

The pinpoint red glow appeared once again in the sky above him. With his heart pounding furiously in his chest, Raoul let the adrenaline take over, throwing his body over the gun, jerking back and pulling the trigger with both hands. The black beam issued forth, meeting Buzzsaw in mid-air and blinding him.

 

The airborne Decepticon missed his target, but only just barely. Raoul felt the rush of air as Buzzsaw flew over him, whipping his wet hair up, and the terrible sensation of metal claws grazing his jacket and tearing it wide open. Just centimeters lower, and that would have been the youth's back.

 

Tracks moved for Raoul and the gun, but Soundwave met him once again, a blow to the chassis, this time sending him to his knees.

 

Adrenaline and anger burning in him, Raoul threw off his ruined jacket and dug his heels into the ground, pushing the gun toward Soundwave. He knew this thing could do more than blind 'cons, he'd _seen_ it put them in a world of hurt, he just had to figure out how Tracks switched modes.

 

His hands swept over it, feeling for some sort of switch or dial. Soundwave was coming in for the kill, he knew it, he could see it, and his heart was beating so hard he thought it might burst. He _wasn't_ going to let it end this way. It wasn't just a determination, it was a fact.

 

Soundwave approached Tracks, raised his gun eerily slow and deliberate. The Autobot tried to rise, but his legs were damaged, sparks kept on flying from his chest, and Raoul could swear that there was smoke rising from those injuries, and whatever he didn't know about Transformer anatomy, he knew that was _bad_. His optics were still so bright, but they weren't going to stay that way for long, if the human didn't do _something!_

 

Raoul's hand found a lever, his mind shouted praises as he grabbed hold and pulled with all his might, arming the alien weapon. Then he put both hands on the trigger, leaned back to aim and pulled, firing on Soundwave.

 

It did the trick-- Soundwave was hit dead-on, and staggered away from Tracks, startled and hurt by the unexpected blow. He turned on Raoul with speed that seemed impossible in such a huge and slow creature. He seemed to determine that the human was currently more threatening than the Autobot, because he moved toward Raoul now, raising his gun for a second attack. This time, he wouldn't let the human live.

 

Raoul had never felt such a raw terror as he did right in that moment. Not even during that night he'd first met Tracks, when Megatron had grabbed him by the jacket and demanded that the Autobots do as he said. Because then, he'd felt strong, and he'd known that even if there _wasn't_ something he could do, the Autobots-- no, _Tracks_ \-- would protect him.

 

But now, there was nothing but himself, and this looming hulking monster called Soundwave, dark in the night, visor burning with murderous intent. And if he couldn't face that thing, on his own, then he and Tracks were both done for. He wanted more than anything for all this to be some nightmare he could just wake up from, but he knew it wasn't, and he couldn't back down.

 

Shivering, but not because he was soaked by the rain, Raoul took hold and pulled the trigger once again, firing on Soundwave.

 

The shot hit home, just like the first. Soundwave was hurt-- the human couldn't tell how badly, but he knew it made the Decepticon angry. The monster Transformer approached again, but stopped as someone seemed to be contacting him.

 

"Starscream." Soundwave said.

 

Oh, no, no, no, _no_ , not _Starscream!_ Was he headed this way? The Seeker never travelled alone, and his speed outmatched any Autobot-- of course he'd get here before reinforcements, and then there would be no hope for Raoul or Tracks.

 

"There has been a slight delay. Proceed as planned." Soundwave said into his comm-link, and then smoothly raised his weapon, pointed at Raoul.

 

Raoul hesitated, his dark eyes widened. Soundwave considered him enough of a nuisance now that he wasn't even going to come over here and crush him. He was going to shoot him. Even Raoul couldn't outrun a laser, there was no way.

 

Soundwave pulled the trigger. Raoul shut his eyes tightly and pulled the trigger himself, as hard as he could, hoping against hope that this would work. It had to-- it was their only hope.

 

"Raoul!" Tracks shouted hoarsely, trying to move, to protect the human. But he was badly hurt, and in that split second Raoul heard his voice and the awful shriek of his damaged parts desperately trying to work, and that was the very moment the two beams hit each other, perfectly, in mid-air.

 

Instantly, they reacted. There was a blinding flash of white, followed by a loud and terrible explosion in the middle of the square that knocked Tracks back down onto the ground, and Soundwave as well. And then there was silence.

 

\--

 

The smoke cleared quickly under the driving rain, just like it had after the first explosion. The people seemed to have quieted, but Tracks wasn't really aware of them anymore.

 

The Autobot was disoriented, his thoughts and his vision blurry as his HUD reset itself. The pain was almost overwhelming. Something had just happened. An explosion. That was all he knew.

 

That, and he could not see Raoul.

 

Suddenly Tracks's spark was gripped with fear, and he realized that he truly couldn't tell where Raoul was. Where was he? He had to know, had to know _right now_ , couldn't live without that damn fool human, what had happened to him?

 

Fighting past the pain, Tracks forced himself up onto his servos and knee joints. He began to search frantically, desperately, the possibilities too horrible for his overworked processor to even consider, thought they stayed at the fringes of his mind, threatening to work into his consciousness and paralyze him with uncertainty.

 

There was debris, he couldn't tell how much was from that explosion and how much was from the first one. The humans were not with them in the square, that was good, there weren't any casualties. Soundwave was still on the ground, recovering; he had been closer to the explosion, and he didn't have the motivation to pick himself the way that Tracks did.

 

But Raoul was what mattered. Where was he? Tracks spotted his gun, it was broken now, the muzzle split. Not far from it was a brown jacket he recognized instantly, though it was filthy and in tatters. That was bad, _Vector Sigma_ that was bad, but _where was Raoul_?

 

There nearby, Tracks finally spotted him-- and in the moment his optics found the youth, his spark felt like it might go dark.

 

Tracks's thoughts were suddenly hazy as fear and grief seized him, and he crawled hastily toward the tattered form lying on the asphalt. There was so much _blood_ \-- he had never known that a human could lose so much. It was dark and wet and Raoul's arm and chest were _soaked_ in it. He wasn't moving.

 

He _could not lose him_.

 

Tracks's servos trembled as he slid them carefully under Raoul's stilled body, lifting him off the asphalt. He was so limp, so cold. It was a world apart from all the times he'd picked him up to feel the youth's warmth and life, and Tracks felt desperate to see him smile again, to hear him speak, to see his dark eyes reflecting the light of the Autobot's own optics.

 

"Raoul," Tracks whispered, his voice choked. "Raoul, please wake up. _Please_ , Raoul!"

 

In his mind, he tried every offer, went through everything he would do if only he could have him back. He wouldn't complain anymore, he'd listen to Raoul's silly music, he'd let him drive anytime he wanted-- he'd even let him put his shoes on the seats! Oh, he'd do anything, _everything_!

 

For a moment, all was still and silent. More than New York had ever been before or ever would be again. The cars did not move, the crowds did not speak, the rain did not fall. The whole world came to a halt around Tracks as he watched the wounded human helplessly, begging him to come back to life as he began to scan him for signs that he might still have some in him.

 

And then, _then_ Raoul started to _cough_ \-- Tracks thought he'd never heard anything so beautiful in his function. It was almost melodic, like the most wonderful music he had ever heard in the Universe.

 

"Raoul!" He gasped. "Stay awake, Raoul, stay with me!" Tracks didn't care if he looked desperate. He didn't care how he looked at all. He was a wreck, and he needed Raoul.

 

Raoul's deep brown eyes opened partly, and he looked up at Tracks. He smiled feebly, and coughed again, a little harder this time. "You got it...." He murmured distantly.

 

Tracks held him close, so frantic he had to be especially mindful not to hurt the tiny, precious thing in his servos. He was shaking, the metal of his body clattering softly. But as he heard the sounds of reinforcements finally arriving, Autobots shouting at Soundwave to stay down and taking control of the chaos, Tracks found he did not care about anything except that Raoul was _alive_.

 

\--

 

It rained all night, and it rained most of the next day.

 

Tracks reluctantly allowed Powerglide to take Raoul and airlift him to a hospital. He warned him repeatedly to be careful, but even though Powerglide was a terrible show-off, he was also an Autobot. He knew completely what he was being trusted with, he took his duties very seriously, and he would not let anything happen to the human on the quick and vital trip.

 

Tracks was tended on-site by Ratchet before being taken back to the Autobots' New York base for full repairs. He was only half-aware of this, and of Optimus Prime and Jazz and a few others taking care of things here. When more Decepticons did arrive, they were in for a terrible surprise, and easily driven away.

 

The rest of the night was all just a blur. Things didn't slow down and come back into focus until sometime the next day.

 

Tracks was staring up at the ceiling, and wondering vaguely how he had gotten here, in the medbay, back in the safety of the Autobot base. He was mostly back in working order, though in desperate need of repainting. Ratchet had done a wonderful job with his repairs.

 

He took a moment to think over the events of the previous night. And then he sat up suddenly with a soft _woosh_ of hydraulics, looked around the medbay and asked, "Where is Raoul, do you know how he's doing now?"

 

Ratchet turned around and gave him one of his well-known looks from where he was standing halfway across the room. "Good to see you're awake, Tracks." He said. He walked over to stand next to the berth and check on his patient's workings. Before Tracks could get too antsy, he answered, "Raoul's doing much better, I'm told. He's at a hospital not too far from here, Spike and Bumblebee are with him now. Had to have surgery I think, but he's a survivor, that one, made of real Autobot stuff."

 

"I'll say," Tracks agreed, smiling, though he was still uneasy. "He saved my function out there."

 

Ratchet finished checking him over and gave the tire of his shoulder a pat. "I believe it. And I don't think you'll have to worry too much about him. Later today you can even head over there and pay him a visit."

 

"L-later?" Tracks complained. "Why not now?"

 

"Because _now_ you still need your rest." Ratchet answered. "Let your systems adjust before you get back out there burning rubber, you read me?"

 

Tracks gave a reluctant nod, and Ratchet patted his tire again before stepping away to see to another patient who had just entered the medbay, leaving the Corvette to stare once again at the ceiling and think about Raoul.

 

Now, Tracks knew he had only been performing his duties as a soldier when he met Soundwave in combat. But he still felt stupid for doing it, because of the fact that he'd tried to hold him and his grunts off alone while he waited for backup.

 

There too, it'd all just happened so quickly, and that was really what an Autobot did, wasn't it? After all, he'd had no idea what Soundwave and his cassettes had been after, and there was no telling what might have happened to all those humans if he had just stood back and waited. Autobots protected people, no matter the cost, no matter what they had to do. And the humans had never asked for the Transformers to come to their planet, for the Decepticons to wreak havoc in the heart of New York City and cause explosions and attack them with their alien weapons.

 

He had been perfoming his duties. And Raoul, that damn fool, he'd made Tracks's duties his own, too. He'd protected him and the civilians alike as if he'd been a soldier himself. It was awe-inspiring, exemplifying everything that the Autobots stood for. Tracks tried to be proud of himself, but he really only ended up being proud of Raoul.

 

Later he would find out what had happened, what the Decepticons had been trying to accomplish out there. That night, after all was said and done, Optimus Prime would personally tell Tracks that it had been a part of some convoluted scheme to take control of the electricity in the area and at the same time round up and enslave the crowd of humans, and it would all click why they hadn't been able to get away, and where Rumble and Frenzy had been all that time-- on the other side of the square, playing the role of bouncers.

 

But until then, Tracks would not know. Until then, he would only know that the fighting had been terrible, and he needed to see Raoul.

 

Impatiently, he waited for his opportunity to leave. But, he didn't wait for Ratchet's OK-- he just waited for the CMO to leave the medbay, and as soon as he did, Tracks was off, living up to his designation-- " _making tracks_ ".

 

\--

 

It was mid-morning when the Corvette went to the hospital. The sky was still silver, it was still raining (curse the strange weather on this planet!), and Tracks was just realizing that he wasn't sure just _which_ hospital he was looking for.

 

He really hoped that Spike and Bumblebee were still there, because he would pick up on the Autobot signal and that would help him to single out the building.

 

It was the second hospital he visited that turned out to be the right one. It was a relief, because Tracks was in no mood to spend the afternoon searching. At least it beat lying around waiting to be told he could go and where he was actually headed.

 

Happily, he picked up on the Autobot signal as he approached the second hospital, and spotted Bumblebee in 'bot mode, standing by the wall and peering up into a window where Spike and Raoul undoubtably were now.

 

Feeling a small jolt in his spark, Tracks sped toward the building, weaving through the traffic, and transforming just as soon as he was in the parking lot, taking a bouquet of flowers out of his cab as he did. With a smile on his red face, he approached Bumblebee.

 

"Good afternoon, Bumblebee," Tracks greeted.

 

"Hey, Tracks!" Bumblebee replied, turning to the taller Transformer. "You're out early, I see."

 

Tracks thrust forward his half-painted chassis proudly. "I had no intention of being fashionably late for _this_ party." He answered.

 

Bumblebee laughed good-naturedly. "Well, I think you'll have to bend down a little to attend." He said, and stepped aside to make room. "He's right in here."

 

Tracks bent down, but as he did he caught a glimpse of his reflection in all the closed windows on the side of the building. Oh, my, could he _really_ let Raoul see him in this state? It was bad enough that Ratchet did, and it was worse that Bumblebee was seeing him that way right now! Suddenly the vain Corvette became dreadfully self-conscious, as he realized that in his haste he had never even given a thought to the way he was looking, all scratched up and only half-painted. Much of his chassis was a dull silver, the metal replaced but not yet colored. It left Tracks mortified.

 

"What's wrong?" Bumblebee asked.

 

"I.... I...." Tracks stammered helplessly. "Well, _look_ at me! It's _awful_. My paint, my chassis...."

 

Bumblebee laughed again, just as good-naturedly as before. "Don't worry, Tracks! I doubt he'll be able to see it through the window. Besides, he's just gonna be happy that you came to see him, not critizing you for how you look."

 

It was hard to argue with that logic, and that sweet smile of Bumblebee's sold him. Not to mention how desperately Tracks already wanted to see Raoul, whether he looked presentable or not.

 

"Alright, you've convinced me." Tracks said. He leaned down, and looked through the window with a smile that started small but grew big and bright as he set optics on Raoul.

 

The brown-skinned human was lying in a small, clean white bed in a small, clean white room with a few alien machines around him. Spike sat in a comfortable-looking chair next to the bed, and there was a television suspended at the top of the wall in Raoul's line of sight. Tracks couldn't tell what they were watching, but they looked happy, the both of them.

 

"Hey, Tracks!" Raoul greeted, grinning brightly. He waved with one arm-- Tracks noticed them that the other was wrapped in some thick white material. He was wearing an odd pale blue garment that looked like it was made of paper, and there were wires running between him and some odd-looking machines like nothing back on Cybertron.

 

"Good to see you, Tracks." Spike greeted in turn, and gave a little wave of his own.

 

"Hello, Spike," Tracks said, shifting. Only his face was visible through the window, but he still couldn't help feeling rather self-conscious. Still, his voice softened affectionately as he said, "Hello, Raoul. How are you doing?"

 

"A lot better." Raoul answered. "Pretty sore, but they're takin' good care of me, see?" He gestured out at the room with his free arm, the one that wasn't in that.... thing?

 

"What is that on your arm?" Tracks asked uneasily.

 

Raoul paused, as if he wasn't sure, then he looked down at his damaged arm. "Oh." He looked back up at Tracks. "My arm's broke, see, so this keeps it from moving and getting broke worse. 'S called a 'cast'."

 

Tracks frowned. "How long will the cast be on your arm?" He wanted to ask when it would be replaced, too, but remembered at the last moment that humans did not get replacement parts. Fortunately, the youth's next words cleared this up for him.

 

Raoul smiled fondly. "Oh, just until it heals up-- it'll be a few weeks or so. Humans take longer to fix, y'see, but our bodies can repair themselves."

 

Tracks's face lit up with wonder. "That's incredible!"

 

Raoul and Spike both laughed, the same way that Bumblebee had. That was when Tracks finally remembered the flowers pinched between two big, dark gray fingers. With a start, he leaned away from the window, and then carefully put his servo through the opening, hoping that he wouldn't damage anything in the process.

 

"Here, Raoul, these are for you." Tracks said. "I understand that humans give these to each other when one is hurt or when they want to be affectionate. I guess in this case, it's both."

 

He felt Raoul's hand on his finger, and the young man took the flowers gratefully. But before Tracks could start pulling his servo back out, the human grasped it and leaned forward, and he felt a soft, warm touch on the tip of a finger. Then he let Tracks draw his servo back.

 

"What was that?" Tracks asked, putting his face back to the window.

 

"A kiss." Raoul said, chuckling. "Thanks for the flowers, man. I'll treasure 'em."

 

Ah, ever so casual, even now-- and not even minding that Spike was right there next to him (though they both knew he was absolutely trustworthy, it still said something that Raoul didn't mind expressing affection in front of him). It made Tracks's core glow with warmth. There was so much strength and such a cool demeanor in this man that it would never cease to amaze him, he was sure.

 

In a way it was strange, looking at this man, whom he called his own, and knowing that he was the only reason he was still functioning-- but it had been so since their very first meeting. The difference was, when they first met, Raoul hadn't gone and tried to face off against Soundwave and his cassettes for him-- even if he _had_ tried to out-bluff Megatron soon after. It seemed like there was no end to the things Raoul would do that just made him respect him more and more, and despite all the fear and pain he'd been through, it touched Tracks deeply to know how much Raoul cared about him.

 

No one had ever done something like that for him, and he'd never really gone out of his way for anyone else, either, outside of combat, maybe. This was truly something special, and Tracks did not take that for granted.

 

Neither did Raoul, and that was why he did those things, he knew. It was also why Tracks had taken it upon himself, somewhere along the line, to be his protector. He'd already decided not to give the human any more chances to pull crazy stunts on his behalf, even if he was made of "Autobot stuff".

 

He thought about this as he stayed with Raoul and Spike and Bumblebee, but as they spent all the afternoon together, he found he couldn't concentrate for long on anything other than the moment, and how good it felt to be here, and how wonderful it felt to laugh, and to hear Raoul laugh, and to know that they were alive. ☆

 

 


End file.
